Donald Trump was doubling down Friday about his story of nearly crashing during a helicopter ride once with Willie Brown, the notable Black California politician. He was so adamant that it had happened that he threatened to sue The New York Times for reporting that the story was untrue, then posted on his social media site that there were “‘Logs,’ Maintenance Records, and Witnesses” to back up his account. “It was Willie Brown,” Trump, who spent much of the last year hoping to make gains with Black voters, posted.
“But now Willie doesn’t remember?” Brown, 90, who was mayor of San Francisco and speaker of the California Assembly, gave several interviews Thursday and Friday saying such a trip never occurred. Turns out, however, that there was a Black politician from California who once made an emergency landing in a helicopter with Trump. It just wasn’t Brown.
Nate Holden, 95, a former Los Angeles City Council member and state senator, said in an interview with the Times that he had been on a helicopter ride with Trump around 1990 when the aircraft experienced mechanical trouble and was forced to make an emergency landing in New Jersey. Recounting an episode that he had described earlier Friday to Politico, Holden said Trump had been seeking to develop the site of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles when it was part of Holden’s district. Trump wanted him to see his Taj Mahal casino, Holden said, so on a visit to Manhattan, he rode with Trump from his midto.